This thread will be here so that we can post new projects/smaller developments that are related to Metro Vancouver's road network. I know I have been starting too many new threads regarding transportation infrastructure, so let's start placing them in here before we make new threads (lemme appologize for that). Once there is a large discussion, we can then move your posts into a new thread. Let's start off with City of Vancouver's latest initiative [this is called progress =)]

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40 km/h on Local Side StreetsA guide to the proposed new speed limits

Why is Vancouver proposing a new speed limit?

The speed limit on most Vancouver streets is currently 50 km/h. Whether the street is a major thoroughfare or a narrow residential side street, the speed limit is the same.
Every year, the City receives hundreds of complaints about vehicles speeding on local side streets. Often these cars aren't travelling faster than the speed limit, but they are travelling faster than is reasonable for narrow neighbourhood roads. When the City consulted with residents for its Transportation Plan, one of the issues that many residents felt strongly about was that 50 km/h was too fast for their local streets. The City adopted the Plan in 1997 with the recommendation that the speed limit on side streets be reduced to 40 km/h.
Many studies have shown that reduced speeds greatly increase safety. In particular, pedestrians and cyclists are much less likely to be seriously injured if vehicle speeds are reduced. Lower speeds on side streets help make them safer, more livable, and more comfortable for cyclists, pedestrians and residents.Why 40 km/h?

A 40 km/h speed limit would:

set a more appropriate speed limit on most residential roads

send a message to drivers that community streets deserve respect

improve safety

improve livability.

Reducing the speed limit will also allow police to enforce more reasonable speeds on side streets and help the City identify where speeding is occurring and where traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps and corner bulges, might be most useful.
The new speed limit on side streets would not affect trucks or service vehicles that travel on truck routes on major streets, since those routes would remain at 50km/h.What streets would have the new 40 km/h speed limit?

The new limit would apply to most local side streets while most major streets would keep their current speeds. As a general rule, if the street has a yellow line down the middle, it would stay at 50 km/h. If it doesn't have a yellow line, it would likely become 40 km/h. Those areas that are currently 30 km/h, such as playground and school zones, would remain at 30km/h. When will the speed limit change?

To allow the City to set a new blanket speed limit, the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act needs to be changed. The City is currently asking the Ministry of Transportation to change the law to give municipalities the authority to set and enforce speed limits for their municipality.
Once the Ministry of Transportation approves the change, the City has the ability to implement the new speed limit; however, there will be a significant design period, as well as a public awareness campaign and installation time. The earliest that the change is likely to take effect is Spring 2009. How will people learn about the new speed limits?

When the new speed limit is put into effect there will be an awareness campaign to inform drivers about the new rules. The City will partner with other groups to do a variety of advertising and promotion. As well, the Vancouver Police Department will have a period of enhanced enforcement to demonstrate to drivers that the new speed limit is in effect and will be enforced. Will this affect bus service?

No. The City will work with Translink to ensure that bus routes are not impacted by the new speed limits. Since the speed limit on major streets won't change, there will be little or no effect on transit. How will this affect trucks, goods transport and other business vehicles?

The new speed limit is not intended to slow down the work of trucks and other vehicles that need to be on the road for their work. Major streets will continue to have speed limits of 50 km/h. However, trucks would be expected to follow the 40 km/h limit if they had to use a local side street to reach their destination.

We'd like to hear from you! If you have comments or questions, please contact:

^^ Yep. They should leave 50 on smaller streets, and raise it to 65 on major roads. Nothing worse than two cars going side by side 50 km/h during rush hour and slowing everyone behind them down. There should also be a mandatory minimum speed limit of 50 km/h unless conditions do not allow for it.
Enforcement of fast lanes (left lane) should also be created and be very strict...if you want a scenic drive, stick to the right. This is already a de facto law in most of Europe.
Things like this are especially crucial for Vancouver, both in terms of the economy and traffic management; as we do not have any freeways.
Another crucial thing is to overhaul the whole traffic management system in Vancouver, and have policies for things like:
* Left/right turns during rush hour that block traffic from going strait
* Traffic light "waves" - so you don't stop at every single light
* Dynamic signage and signals, depending on conditions and time of day
* Get rid of pedestrian controlled crosswalks, and sync them with the other lights (except on smaller roads)
* Much more...

If you set the speed limit to 65kph, people will go 80kph... and I don't care who you are... but highway speeds in town are not safe.

40km/h on side streets isn't necessarily a bad thing. Many of these streets are practically one lane with cars parked down both sides. A kid running out from a car, a car door opening, a car pulling out...

Most sane people don't travel much faster than 40km/h on local streets anyway.

However, saying all this, a much more effective way to slow traffic down on local streets is either speed bumps, 4-way stops at every intersection (annoying i know) or tight roundabouts.

I agree that 40 km/h on side streets is fine.
People don't know how to exercise discretion any more so government has to regulate - i.e. all of the former courtesy corners in residential areas have been replaced with stop signs.

I agree that 40 km/h on side streets is fine.
People don't know how to exercise discretion any more so government has to regulate - i.e. all of the former courtesy corners in residential areas have been replaced with stop signs.

40 km/hr is also the speed limit for lanes/smaller roads in Richmond.

I would say this is a good start to improving vancouver streets, but I think more traffic calming initiatives needs to be done, such as traffic circles, "force turns", "dead ends [not really dead]." It's nice that Vancouver's beginning to slowly change for the better of cyclists and pedestrians.

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Originally Posted by zivan56

^^ Yep. They should leave 50 on smaller streets, and raise it to 65 on major roads. Nothing worse than two cars going side by side 50 km/h during rush hour and slowing everyone behind them down. There should also be a mandatory minimum speed limit of 50 km/h unless conditions do not allow for it.
Enforcement of fast lanes (left lane) should also be created and be very strict...if you want a scenic drive, stick to the right. This is already a de facto law in most of Europe.
Things like this are especially crucial for Vancouver, both in terms of the economy and traffic management; as we do not have any freeways.
Another crucial thing is to overhaul the whole traffic management system in Vancouver, and have policies for things like:
* Left/right turns during rush hour that block traffic from going strait
* Traffic light "waves" - so you don't stop at every single light
* Dynamic signage and signals, depending on conditions and time of day
* Get rid of pedestrian controlled crosswalks, and sync them with the other lights (except on smaller roads)
* Much more...

Honestly, during rush hours, I would say it's hard to even reach 50 km/hr in Vancouver streets sometimes. According to the City of Vancouver, the average speed in downtown is 40 km/hr if all lights were green. I agree with the right lane thing, and the Ministry of Transportation has been slowly including signs that enforce this. Better traffic management systems are also important. Sync all the lights together would be nice too.

In Montreal there are neighbourhoods where it is 40 km/h on major streets. Personally I think they should slow it down to 30 km/h on residential streets, but this can only really be done by adding traffic calming measures and narrowing the street.

I don't know what the speed limit should be on major streets, but I think that it would be ideal if the actually speed of traffic never exceeds 40 km/h because of frequent lights and narrower lanes. That way cyclists can safely travel with cars and act like any other vehicle instead of being squeezed off to the side. I can do this already on some streets Montreal without ever getting passed and I think it would go a long way to make cycling more popular.

Not sure where to put this, this is a pretty generic thread. Sounds pretty good, unfortunately it's not really that large on the grand scale of things but it is an improvement. If it works well it will be expanded, but it can never be as huge as some people are hoping for.

Port terminals to trade in roadways for seaways
Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, September 05, 2008
Metro Vancouver port terminals aim to take 650 trucks per day off congested Metro roads with a series of new shortsea shipping routes that will trade waterways for roadways to move cargo around.

The federal government on Friday announced it will spend $20 million from its Asia-Pacific Gateway initiative to help port operators and municipalities build up to $43.5 million worth of facilities and infrastructure in seven separate projects.

The seven are a series of linked barge facilities at existing terminals and road improvements that will create a transportation network capable of handling 120,000 containers per year.

Federal funding will be contingent on reaching contribution agreements with the companies and municipalities involved as well as completion of required environmental assessments, but the projects include:

- The Fraser River shuttle will see the Coast 2000 distribution centre on the south arm of the Fraser River in Richmond build a barge ramp and dock able load and unload shipping containers for transport to and from port terminals. Cost: $10 million, $5 million from the federal government.

- The Deltaport shortsea berth project will see TSI Terminal Systems build a barge berth as part of its Berth 3 expansion. Cost: $4.7 million, $2.35 million from the federal government.

- The Vanterm shortsea berth will see TSI Terminals convert the existing Berth No. 7 at its Burrard Inlet terminal into a shortsea barge berth capable of handling containers and a ramp for roll-on-roll-off truck traffic. Cost: $3.9 million, $1.9 million from the federal government.

- The Mountain View Apex Container Terminal, which will see Seaspan International build a shortsea access point allowing it to move freight by barge including containers and tractor trailers in a roll-on-roll-off fashion. Cost: $14 million, $7 million from the federal government.

- The Southern Railway of B.C. rail barge project will see Southern Rail build a rail-barge ramp at its terminal on Annacis Island capable of handling rail cars and tractor trailers. Cost: $10 million, $4.6 million from the federal government.

- The City of Richmond will build a new four-lane section of road between Wireless Way and Highway 91 to improve traffic flows. The federal government will support construction with a $750,000 contribution.

- The Corporation of Delta will build left-turn lanes on Nordel Way at Brooke Road and Shepherd Way to reduce congestion. The federal government will support construction with a $1.1 million contribution.

The province is committing to significant improvements for Highway 7 in Mission, Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Randy Hawes announced Tuesday.

"Highway 7 is a very important transportation network for our area as it serves as a major connector to the Lower Mainland from the Fraser Valley," said Hawes. "This is why we are committed to upgrading and improving the safety of this portion of the highway."

The present two-lane Silverdale Creek Bridge on Highway 7 was constructed in 1957 and is nearing the end of its service life. It will be replaced with a new four-lane structure built to provincial flood and environmental
standards.

"The District of Mission appreciates the commitment by the province to invest in the improvement of Highway 7 within Mission," said Mission Mayor James Atebe.

"The improvements will facilitate traffic safety and economic well-being in our community."

The new bridge will be a centrepiece of future planned expansion of Highway 7. Long-term plans include four-laning a five-kilometre stretch of Highway 7, from Silverdale Avenue to Wren Street, with widened shoulders to safely accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.

The replacement of the Silverdale Creek Bridge and upgrades to Highway 7 between the bridge and Wren Street are expected to begin in 2009, with completion in 2011.

All i can say is about time, that stretch of highway is a death trap. It has many pot holes and 10 foot trenches on both sides of it with no shoulder or barriers. If they are making this section 4 lanes they they have to 4 lane the last little 2 lane piece between Maple Ridge and Mission, a 2 or 3 km stretch between Ruskin and 272nd. The #7 right now is a classic BC highway, meaning it goes from 4 lanes to 2, back to 4, to 2 again, 4 again and then 2.